Rain is often a rare visitor here at home, but sometimes it decides to come and pay us a serious visit for a little while. The rain started falling late Monday afternoon, and twelve hours later, we have received about 3.5 inches of rain. The communities about thirty minutes south of us received about double that amount, and it should really be interesting today as significant rain is in the forecast for the next 24 hours. It is still raining as I’m typing this, and the weather guy on television just said the next band headed our way is producing rain at 4″ per hour. That is going to hit right at morning commute time, unfortunately.
I try to never, ever complain about the rain, and I won’t start now. I hope people here are safe in driving as it continues, as several high water rescues took place yesterday evening. I plan to just stay in today or until the roads improve, but others do not have that luxury as the workday commences shortly and roads are still pretty flooded. In flat terrain, it is hard for flood waters to run off, and every little valley and low spot will collect water and start to flood with little warning, especially when the ground is saturated like it is at this time. Some roads in the rural areas are completely closed, including some that are widely traveled, and a couple of small communities opened shelters for travelers and others overnight.
A long-term rain event like this will definitely help to recover from the drought a bit more, and it is yet another answer to many prayers since 2011. Technically, we are no longer in a drought, even though many area lakes are still very low and desperately need good soaking rain events like this to help recharge their levels. May and June are our prime times for rainfall, so we will take every drop right now and hope for even more during the coming weeks. I suspect this one rain event will result in more rain for us than we received in the entire year of 2011. We’ll see in a few days.
Our big spoiled puppy started to panic late yesterday evening over the rain. “Sugar” apparently thought he would melt if he had to go out in the hard rain to do his business. We both tried and tried to get him to go out with no success, but finally around 10 pm, the rain broke just long enough for pup to agree to go out. Girly Girl just takes it all in stride, even though she doesn’t like it.
The weather forecasters were spot on in forecasting this rain event days ago. We knew it was likely coming, so we took advantage of the gorgeous weather over the weekend to make a quick trip in the RV to a “new-to-us” destination, Lake Colorado City State Park, and I will try to share a little information and some photos soon. It is a lesser known state park with a lower visitation rate these days, but we had a nice, relaxing time, especially since it was not crowded with only a few other couples in their RVs while we were there. The park and the entire area were so green, and the wildflowers were especially beautiful. We even saw some bluebonnets in the park. I’ve felt that this little park has gotten a bit of a bad wrap lately, especially as far as RV camping is concerned, and our experience proved that to definitely be the case. Motor boating on the lake is not possible at this time due to the lower lake level, but RV camping is still quite nice there. There is still a lake there, too. More to come.
We are preparing to leave on a trip this Saturday and will be gone for a week. I have more to share on our upcoming trip before we leave and will try to share here on Thursday or Friday. If it keeps raining like this, though, we may need to take a boat to the airport on Saturday instead of our car.
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Well let’s hope all that rain starts filling the lakes from the past years of drought and makes all the flowers happy!
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The lakes really need a few little miracle rains, and maybe this will be the first one. We can certainly hope so! If the lake at that little state park we visited over the weekend fills back up, it’s going to probably start filling up in the campsites once again and will be a regular stop on our camping rotation in this area.
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So glad to hear much-needed rainfall has arrived.
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It gets even better! As of 1:30 am this morning, the lake that is one of our primary water supplies is 100% full and still overflowing its banks. It is huge news, and I can finally check off praying for an end to the drought today! It is pretty much a miracle that we got so much rain in just the right spot to fill the lake completely in just 36 hours.
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I for one find it perfectly acceptable to TALK about rain and weather and such. Merely talking about it is not complaining. If merely mentioning a topic were to be thought a complaint then no one would say aught about anything!
It’s always lovely finding those less popular campgrounds. I sometimes wonder a certain campground seems less appreciated than another because it often works out that I like the less popular one better. (and not just because there are no people there!)
When you have that much rain do you have flooding issues in the area? Hard to imagine that much water at once — SE WI had 4″ a few years ago while I was out photographing a wedding. I came home about 3 hours after the downpour and had to circle 3/4 of the way around our home town because every approach to Cudahy was flooded out except for one. The next day we had water in the basement — as did many of the SE WI residents. With heavy clay in the soil the water took the easiest escape route — into everyone’s basements.
We had one really intense soaker in S. Texas — that might have been the hardest rain I have ever (personally) been in.
Yesterday I heard that this is Oregon’s driest year on record and lots of concern about wildfires. Did you know that those little piles of leaves and pine needles right at the intersection of your house wall and the ground can be 20º-30º warmer and 1/2 the humidity levels of the surrounding area? The local TV showed a fire control expert with his digital thermometer as a way of demonstrating how careful one needs to be about cigarette butts, etc. Amazed me!
Anyway…. stay dry!
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I actually thought of you and Peg as we visited that little state park. I started following all the parks in our area on Facebook and learned that the people at this park are working very hard to get the word out about it and the benefits it still has, especially for RV and regular campers, birders, etc. Birding is huge there. We really enjoyed our weekend there. We’ve just come to love and appreciate all of the parks, it seems. I have some pretty epic news to share about the rain. Let’s just say that yesterday was one for the record books, in a good way!
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Records scare me! 🙂
We’ve visited several parks that were having similar publicity issues. But makes it nice for those who are in the know.
Sometimes you hate to share the news about hidden gems for fear they will be ruined by popularity. sigh.
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I failed to answer your question about the flooding. Yes, we had some flooding in town and all around the area, especially to the south where our water supply lake is! Some areas there received about a foot of rain in less than two days. In town, though, it was not as bad as it would have been a decade ago, thanks to an expensive storm-water drainage system that was installed over the course of several years to help alleviate the flooding of the playa lakes when we get that much rain. It works quite well, but when rain falls this fast and this hard, there is just only so much the system can handle. It pumps the water to a series of canyon lakes on the east side of town, which then flows out to a river system and takes it south. Thankfully, our house sits on high ground, as much as high ground exists here, although our back yard really held a lot of water yesterday that had no where to go. Prior to having the storm water drainage system, a rain like this would probably have devastated many areas in town, for sure. It also reduced the number of homes and businesses in flood areas that no longer need to carry that expensive flood insurance. I will admit that I was pretty *intimidated* when the rain hit. I’m not sure I will ever get used to being in storms like that, but thankfully, it was not severe in the initial rounds. Late yesterday, though, we did have a tornado just to the east of us. Tis the season…
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Thanks for the info. Being in the desert it’s interesting to note how many flood abatement canals, and drainage culverts, etc have been installed for flooding in areas that get very little water but when it comes it can be devastating because the ground will not admit to saturation — being baked.
RV’ing allows one the time to THINK about things that in one’s earlier life you just take for granted. AND, traveling a little slower you get a chance to observe more carefully what you would have zoomed past — causing a doubling up of things to think about.
I wonder at times why people would choose to live in certain places. But then being in Bosque — near the Camino Real memorial — I’m reminded that desert places have been major commerce hubs and that the Spanish Royal Roads were protected and safe for anyone to travel. There have been indigenous peoples using that Camino Real for several centuries and today it looks so desolate. Makes me think, think, think…. 🙂
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